Good report DRB. are you getting the LUFC bug agin??
On Monday, 16 December 2013, 9:49, David Brennan <[email protected]> wrote: I am sober now, so can add a little more detail to my inebriated effort of Saturday evening. Well Doncaster was a fun day out. All means of transport worked as web listings described, and I found myself tucked in the corner of a very nice pub near the station by about 12.30. Being a Yorkshire derby, you couldn’t really tell who was Leeds and who was Doncaster, but the pub in question had a dart board in the corner, horse racing on the telly, a bar maid over 50, and most of the clientele looked like Andy Capp, so no worries in that one. Neil (who i was with) decided we’d visit another couple of bars, so after a cheap but rather tasteless pint of Ruddles in the Wetherspoons, we made our way across town, avoiding the jam butties careering hither and thither, to the Northern Grey, a pub occupied by 99 percent men, most of whom looked very very very scary! Neil knows all the ‘lads’ and kept introducing me to mad blokes from South Elmsall who like headbutting people. Can’t say I wasn’t unhappy when we left the gaff at about 2.30 to walk to the ground. Taking a seat near the back of what would be equivalent to our West Stand, I was happy to find myself surrounded by blokes in bobble hats, kids, and a few mums. Still it became clear to anyone listening to Neil’s comments (he’s Doncaster by the way) that I was a Leeds fan, but no one caused me any bother. With my accent being very similar to theirs most people woudln’t notice if they didn’t listen to what was being said - be a bit different in that London or somewhere similar I suppose. The game itself was pretty poor fare. The first half was very very scrappy, the only bit of class really was Smith’s goal which came from a lovely cross from Mowatt. Smith was at the back post and perhaps the Donny defence should have done better – we’d certainly have been complaining about conceding from set pieces again if the goal had gone the other way like that – but Smith did what he had to do and nodded the ball in. He is good with his head, if a lumbering lump otherwise. I found I enjoyed cheering internally much more than I thought i would. But I certainly wasn’t going to jump up and down – I don’t want to be thrown out, or punched, and actually I think it would be disrespectful, I know I don’t like it when away fans in the home stands at ER get all giddy when they score. There was a swirly wind, but I don’t think that can really excuse the poor control on the pitch. Austin was putting himself about a bit but he managed to lash a good chance way over the bar when he should have at least got the ball on target. Second half saw Donny come out with much more intent, and put us under pressure, they had a succession of corners, the pressure culminating in a goal that was disallowed for off side. It was at the far end to me, and the other side of the pitch, so hard to say, but the flag did seem rather late. But hey, I’m not complaining. Very very much against the run of play McCormack scored a really well taken goal that he really made for himself jinking past two defenders and slotting home low from an angle. Doncaster are very much a team of the division, they have some reasonable players, they can at times produce good football, but they lack quality in the last third – their number 22 was very lively, similar to Poleon, but he kept fluffing his lines when it really counted, just like Poleon does. My mate was as you might expect rather disappointed so we left five mins before the end to catch an early train, so I missed the last goal, but a lad showed me it on his phone on the train home, so it was nice to see Austin make up for his earlier miss with a really well taken strike. Fun day out, good company, excellent beer (apart from the Ruddles), I managed to avoid any bother (there must have been plenty judging from the amount of dibble flying all over the shop), we won, scored three goals, didn't concede any, and I was just about home in time to watch the Strictly Come Dancing semi-final :-) DRB _______________________________________________ Leedslist mailing list Info and options: http://mailman.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/leedslist To unsubscribe, email [email protected] John 'Grampa' Sykes Rest In Peace old lad 28th Oct 1938 - 12 Nov 2013 MARCHING ON TOGETHER _______________________________________________ Leedslist mailing list Info and options: http://mailman.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/leedslist To unsubscribe, email [email protected] John 'Grampa' Sykes Rest In Peace old lad 28th Oct 1938 - 12 Nov 2013 MARCHING ON TOGETHER
